Briefly -
The legislature has 2-year sessions, beginning in an odd year and ending in an even year. Thus, 2015 is the first year of this session, and 2016 is the second year.

Bills are introduced in January and February of each year; members are limited, a little bit, in how many bills they can introduce. The legislative calendar gives the exact cutoff dates.

Note that the bill numbering restarts with the first year of each session; there was a 2011 AB 50 and a 2013 AB 50 and a 2015 AB 50 - the year is an important bit of data to find a bill.

Bills are assigned to committees in the house where they are introduced. Penal Code bills ordinarily go to the Public Safety Committee.

Here's the general pattern:

Introduced in one chamber

Committee 1 > Committee 2 > Full house

Goes to the other house;

Committee 1 > Committee 2 > Full house

Goes to the Governor

Since the Budget is supposed to be first, bills sit around in Committee, doing not much, until about May or June.

Committees may amend a bill. Eventually a bill will be voted on; if it passes, it goes to the next committee.

Usually, the next committee is Appropriations - basically, that committee wants to know if the bill will cost anything and if so, how the bill proposes to pay for it.

If the bill passes Appropriations, usually it goes to a floor vote for the whole house.

If it passes the house vote, it goes to the OTHER house, and the cycle continues; sticking with a Penal Code bill, it will usually be Public Safety, Appropriations, Floor vote.

Once it passes both houses, usually sometime in September, the bill goes to the Governor.

The Governor may sign the bill, veto the bill, or allow it to become law without his signature.

Using SB 249 as an example, we have some uncommon but entirely within the rules differences

That bill started in the Senate as an Agriculture bill, passed the Senate Ag Committee, passed the Senate Appropriations Committee, passed the Senate floor vote, and went to the Assembly.

In the Assembly, it was assigned to the Ag Committee, and just sat there, no hearings, past the adjournment for 2011.

Since it was in the Assembly, it had to be considered there; Yee replaced the entire content of the bill and asked for it to go to Public Safety, correct for its new content. That process is called 'gut and amend' and yes, it IS within the rules.

Now, 249 has passed Assembly Public Safety and goes to Assembly Appropriations. If it passes there, it goes to the Assembly floor for a vote.

If it passes there, it must go back to the Senate for a floor vote, where the Senate concurs in the Assembly amendments.

Thank you very much for that clear and concise explanation. I really appreciate it. It puts today's stupidity in context and perspective and makes me feel a bit better. We have a long way before this is a done deal... and just about any point can be a game-ender for them.

But forgot the details of how a vote of a Bill actually works in California.

If the vote fails for a bill the leadership is pushing [anti-gun bills], there will be a 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th vote hours or even days later. The voting is sometimes held open for hours. This is a clear violation of their own rules which are routinely ignored or suspended.